1. Field of the Invention
The present general inventive concept relates to a method of attaching and sending a file through a webmail from an image forming apparatus, and an image forming apparatus to perform the method.
2. Description of the Related Art
In general, an image forming apparatus performs at least one of various functions of a printer, a photocopier, a scanner, a fax machine, etc.
As more functions may be embedded in an image forming apparatus in light of the latest technological developments, a user may separately perform a printing operation, a photocopying operation, a faxing operation, a scanning operation, etc. by using the image forming apparatus. Also, the image forming apparatus may perform various other functions corresponding to users' demands, for example, a function of sending scanned data generated by performing a scanning operation through an email or a fax message.
Currently popular is a network scan function in which a scanned image file obtained by scanning an image or a document by using the image forming apparatus is sent to a destination through a network. The network scan function includes a scan-to-folder function in which a scanned image file of the image forming apparatus is sent to a certain folder of a destination computer by using a file transfer protocol (FTP) or a server message block (SMB) protocol, and a scan-to-email function in which a scanned image file of the image forming apparatus is attached to an email so as to send the email to a simple mail transfer protocol (SMTP) server by using an SMTP. The SMTP server should be previously set in the image forming apparatus in order to perform the scan-to-email function. That is, the SMTP server should be previously set in the image forming apparatus by recognizing an address and a port number of the SMTP server. Also, only one SMTP server can be set in the image forming apparatus and thus, if two or more addresses of different domains are used, the SMTP server should be differently set whenever an email address of a domain is changed.
Meanwhile, when sending emails, current Internet users use webmails provided by portal sites such as Naver or Daum in Korea, or Google or Yahoo in the U.S.A. Here, a webmail is an email that can be sent by logging into a webmail server through a web browser of a certain portal site and using a web user interface provided by the portal site. If the portal site does not allow SMTP accesses, emails can only be sent through the web browser and cannot be sent by using the scan-to-email function of the image forming apparatus, which uses the SMTP. Thus, demands for a method of performing a network scan function through a webmail from a network image forming apparatus have increased.